Residents at a proposed apartment building in Astana would be able to ski or snowboard down a 1,000ft slope linking the roof to the ground.

A new housing complex planned in Astana, Kazakhstan‘s capital, is set to include a 1,000ft ski slope, running from the roof to the ground.

The proposed project was devised by a group of architects, led by Shokhan Mataibekov, who were inspired by Kazakhstan’s exceedingly long, cold winter.

The city of Astana experiences temperatures averaging around -20°C, with a long winter lasting from November right through to April – but there are currently no slopes nearby for skiers and snowboarders to make the most of the conditions.

Enter House Slalom, a multi-purpose, 21-storey building comprised of shops on the ground floor, 421 flats on the upper floors, and an outdoor ski slope running alongside the building.

Plans have been submitted, and the project is currently awaiting approval from city officials.

If successful, the building would be the first of its kind in the world according to Mr. Mataibekov, formerly Astana’s chief architect.

He added: “It would be an instant hit for ski and snowboard lovers”.

The run has been designed to offer year-round snow sports – constructed from Snowflex, a synthetic material designed to simulate the slip and grip effects of real snow, the slope would be equally accessible in the summer months.

Akim (Mayor) of Astana Mr. Adilbek Dzhaksybekov launched a series of “Smart” projects in July. Smart Astana project includes several directions, such as Smart Clinics, Smart Schools, Smart Street Lighting and Smart Payments.

“In order to avoid queuing, to create comfortable conditions, to regulate the flow of adults and children, as well as to exclude their intersection at the reception and near specialists’ offices, we introduced the Triage System, which allows hospitals to receive visitors depending on the type of their treatment and on the severity of their condition. These passages do not overlap with each other, which is essential for the maintenance of the sanitary-epidemiological status of the facility and for the prevention of the spread of various diseases,” said the head of the Astana Health Department Yerik Baizhunussov.

The innovations will also include the introduction in 2016 of electronic medical records for patients in all medical organizations to eliminate paperwork and increase convenience.

The concept of Smart Astana was created to improve the quality of life of the population of the capital.

Smart Astana was created and is being implemented by Astana Innovations to create conditions and infrastructure to become one of the top 50 Smart cities of the world. All Smart projects are being implemented by investors without the involvement of public funds.

All states stand to gain culturally, commercially and diplomatically by building relations with the outside world and absorbing that enriching experience. By understanding the cultures and behavior of others, we can learn from them and also cooperate with them more effectively to advance mutual interests.

With only 20 years of experience as an independent state, Kazakhstan is still working hard at developing its foreign relations. Globalization and new technologies have created extraordinary opportunities for diplomacy.

We are keen to capitalize on our geographical location between Europe and Asia and ensure that Kazakhstan is a regional and global hub for trade flows, financial and business links, as well as technological innovation. We have developed strong relations with China, Russia, the European Union and North America and believe that we have already taken important first steps toward achieving this objective.

In 1993, Kazakhstan launched an unprecedented program among former Soviet republics to train a new managerial and administrative elite. In very difficult economic conditions, President NursultanNazarbayev took the strategic decision to establish a program to send talented young Kazakh students abroad to study at the world’s best universities. Many people did not see the point of this at the time, when Kazakhstan was struggling with hyperinflation and other serious economic problems that resulted from the breakdown of trading links after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This program was Kazakhstan’s first significant investment in its future. Since then, 4,000 young Kazakhs have graduated from this program and returned to Kazakhstan with new knowledge and skills. This new generation of foreign-trained specialists has contributed greatly to Kazakhstan’s rapid emergence as the leading economy in Central Asia and a significant player in international relations.

Graduates of this study-abroad program today play important roles as diplomats, foreign economic relations specialists and managers of companies. Several are already ministers. Other countries, including Brazil, China and Russia, have recently begun similar programs based on our experience.

This program is now being reconfigured to support postgraduate students rather than undergraduates. The reason for this is that we have now established the Nazarbayev University in Astana to lead the next stage in developing the country’s intellectual resources. Opened in 2010, the new university intends to become a world-class teaching and research center. It has several international partners, including University College London and a number of leading U.S. universities.

Kazakhstan’s future rests on success in three vital areas: managing a balanced foreign policy to achieve a secure environment in Central Asia, training a workforce to operate a high-tech economy and attracting foreign investment to develop a modern industrial base.

To meet these requirements, Kazakhstan needs skilled professionals with knowledge of the outside world and the ability to communicate effectively. We need to continue to make the most of the opportunities to benefit from foreign education and integrate the best international practices into our economy.

Many of us in Kazakhstan grew up with the proverb, “Repetition is the mother of learning.” We believe that our focus today should instead be on learning from others and not repeating their mistakes.

Despite our abundance of natural resources, we want our future to be based on a knowledge economy that makes full use of our role as a natural trade route between the markets of China and Europe and Central Asia and South East Asia, with connectivity to Russia and the Persian Gulf. We are keen to develop a new “silk road” that is internationally competitive on the basis of speed, cost and reliability.

This is why we are developing the transcontinental corridor “Western Europe-Western China.” When it is completed in 2015, it will reduce the time it takes to deliver goods from China to Europe by 3 1/2 times compared to the sea route.

Education put us on the map after we gained independence in 1991. Over the next stage of our development, it will play an important role in maximizing our geographical advantage and raising our economic competitiveness.

Editor’s note: Each month Eye On takes you to a different country, highlighting the interesting places and innovative people transforming their country.

(CNN) — There is something mirage-like about Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.

Little surrounds the city for 1,200 kilometers, save a handful of provincial towns dotted across the world’s largest steppe, a flat, empty expanse of grassland.

Shooting up from this void is a mass of strangely futuristic structures. The newest of these is the Norman Foster-designed Khan Shatyr, a shopping mall that doubles as the world’s largest tent.

Foster was also the architect behind the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, a 60-meter-tall glass pyramid. There’s also the Central Concert Hall, which from above looks like a budding flower, a flying saucer-shaped circus, a presidential palace designed to replicate the White House, and Baiterek, a 100-meter-tall tower that has drawn comparisons to a giant lollipop.

Yet just 15 years ago the city didn’t really exist at all.

In 1997 Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev moved the capital from Almaty in the southeast of the country to the newly-named Astana (previously it was called Akmola), which was then an empty patch of land by the Ishim River best known as a former gulag prison camp for the wives of Soviet traitors.

Today the bulging, science fiction-like skyline has started to earn the country some international recognition.

Neil Billett, a managing director and partner at Buro Happold, the engineering consultants that partnered with Foster’s firm on the Khan Shatyr and the Palace of Peace, lauds the local architects’ progressive thinking.

“They do quite like a challenge, and they do organize themselves to get on with it in a way that’s quite refreshing,” he says. “These projects would have taxed the mind of many a high-end contractor, and in Kazakhstan, they have to address the same problems in a much harder climate.”

The capital’s climate does make construction much more complicated. In the winter months temperatures can fall to minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit), making it the second coldest capital city in the world. In the summer, the mercury can reach up to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

According to George Keliris, a structural engineer at Buro Happold, this temperature variance proved

particularly challenging when constructing the Palace of Peace.

“We had to allow a system that relieved the stress and let the structure breathe,” he says.

The solution they came up with was to lock down one corner of the pyramid, while placing the remaining corners on bridge bearings. Though common with bridges, such bearings are practically unheard of with entire buildings.

“Basically, it’s on roller skates,” says Keliris. “Because of the climate, (the structure) was bound to be futuristic.”

From a distance, Astana’s architecture looks disparate, however a strong Kazakh theme runs through it all. Baiterek is meant to evoke the local legend of the “Tree of Life”; the story has a golden egg, and the building is topped with a golden orb. The shape of the Central Concert Hall was purposefully made to resemble a traditional Kazakh instrument, known as a dombra.

Since it became the country’s capital, Astana’s population has more than doubled to 750,000. Despite this urban growth the size of the new buildings can still seem excessively large. The Central Concert Hall is one of the largest in the world, and seats 3,500 spectators, while the Astana Arena seats 30,000.

However, according to Serik Rustambekov, a local architect, the reach of these projects matches the local way of thinking.

“You need to understand the Kazakh background to get a better picture of our world view. We’re a nomadic civilization that developed over thousands of years in the vast expanse of Eurasia. Free space is more impressive to the Kazakh mindset than the type of congestion found in many European centers.”

Numerous architects from across the world have had a hand in shaping the new capital’s skyline, but the one man who has had the greatest impact in the city’s transformation is President Nazarbayev.

Manfredi Nicoletti, whose Rome-based firm, Studio Nicoletti, designed the Central Concert Hall, confirms that Nazarbayev was very hands-on in the structure’s implementation.

“He used to joke that the building was right in front of his residence (the Presidential Palace), and that

the project’s construction site — and us, of course — were always under his control.”

In many ways, Astana looks like a vanity project for Nazarbayev. At the top of Baiterek, which grew from a sketch Nazarbayev did himself, visitors can touch his gilded handprint, and each year, the city’s anniversary celebrations happen to coincide with his birthday.

Nazarbayev’s advocates, however, argue that Astana isn’t a symbol of his ego, so much as his ambition for the Kazakh nation. One of Nazarbayev’s strongest supporters has come in the unlikely form of Jonathan Aitken, a former British politician, who wrote a recently published biography of the president based on 23 hours of personal interview, and a retrospective of the country.

“While I’m sure (Nazarbayev) does have a large ego, it’s more of an ‘I love the country’-centred ego, not an I-centred ego,” says Aitken.

Aitken equates Nazarbeyev with the type of patrons that dominated 18th century Europe, in particular, Louise XIV.

“Just as Versailles and parts of Paris were all created by one man’s vision, so too was Astana,” he says.

The city’s futuristic design shows Kazakhstan’s ambition and desire to distance itself from the Soviet legacy that has marred many of the surrounding Central Asian nations.

“Architecture always represents the development of the state, of technology and of culture,” notes Rustambekov. “As Astana is positioning itself as the center of Eurasia, a place where East meets West, a mixture of styles is quite appropriate.”

Russia’s recently reaffirmed plans to decrease use of the Baikonur Cosmodrome presents Kazakhstan with both a challenge and an opportunity. The joint use of the facility over the past two decades has strengthened Russian-Kazakhstani scientific and technical cooperation as well as a means of elevating Kazakhstan’s global status. But Baikonur’s transformation does offer Kazakhstan an opportunity to develop new foreign partnerships and new uses for this valuable facility.

Russian officials have reiterated their intent to complete construction of their new Vostochny Cosmodrome (in Amur Oblast, in Russia’s Far East) and begin launching spacecraft, first unmanned and later manned, from there by 2015. As of January 2011, almost 65 percent of Russian space launches occurred from Baikonur; the new Vostochny Cosmodrome, coupled with the existing Plesetsk spaceport, could reduce that number to 11 percent by 2020 (Moscow Times, January 11, 2011).

In 1994, Kazakhstan and Russia ratified an agreement that recognized Kazakhstan’s ownership of Baikonur but allowed Russia to continue using the site and its facilities under a 20-year lease. A January 2004 accord, which entered into force in 2005, extended the leasing arrangement through 2050, with Russia paying $115 million annually to use the facility, as well as $50 million to maintain it (tengrinews.kz, April 13).

The initial decade of the leasing agreement was characterized by strong collaboration and cooperation between the two countries. Although some Kazakhstanis opposed the facility’s continued use as an environmental hazard, others consider Kazakhstan’s major role in space as an important driver of scientific and technological development, as well as economic growth. Its presence drove Kazakhstan to create a national space agency (Kazcosmos) that, in 2006, launched its first satellite.

But the past decade has seen several policy disputes between Kazakhstan and Russia that may have encouraged the subsequent restructuring of Kazakhstan’s space launch program. Citing environmental damage and other costs, Kazakhstanis have pushed to raise the lease payments (en.tengrinews.kz, September 20, 2011). The debate over Baikonur’s continued use sharpened in 2007, when a Russian rocket crashed shortly after launch. Kazakhstani authorities claim that the accident produced approximately $60 million in damage. Between 2009 and 2011, Kazakhstan banned Russia from launching intercontinental-range ballistic missiles from the site, spurring Russia to move more of its military launches elsewhere (tengrinews.kz October 9, 2011). Having Vostochny as well as Plesetsk will enhance Moscow’s bargaining leverage with the Kazakhstani authorities, since Russia could more easily abandon the facility if not offered suitable terms.

Despite the construction of Vostochny, the Russian and Kazakhstani governments want to continue using Baikonur. On April 12, 2008, Anatoly Perminov, then-head of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), told journalists that Russia intended to use the facility until 2050 (RIA Novosti, April 12, 2008). The joint declaration at the May 2008 Russia-Kazakhstani presidential summit pledged that the parties would employ Baikonur in a way that benefited Kazakhstan, Russia and other countries.

Russia wants to increase commercial use of Baikonur while moving the Russian government’s military and civilian launches mainly to Plesetsk and Vostochny. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has openly encouraged greater commercial use as well as increasing cooperative projects with foreign space programs (UPI, April 12). Russian analysts foresee growing global demand for space launch services that Baikonur could help meet. In February 2012, the current head of Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, announced that Russia aimed to place at least one hundred additional military satellites over the next decade, some of which will likely use Baikonur (RIA Novosti, February 22). Last month, Russia launched another military satellite from that facility (Interfax-AVN, March 30).

In 2008, Talgat Musabaev, head of Kazcosmos, predicted that Russia would end manned space flights from Baikonur over the next decade. He added that Kazakhstan and Russia would move to “a new strategic stage of space partnership” (Interfax-Kazakhstan, February 2008). Nonetheless, the uncertainty of this space partnership has prompted Kazcosmos to begin shifting its focus away from Russian space projects and more towards domestic projects such as enhancing the country’s communications capabilities and developing Baikonur into a center for developing high-technology products.

In 2010, Kazakhstani authorities approved an ambitious new program to develop an integrated national space research and development program with several centers located throughout Kazakhstan, including at Baikonur. In a July 2010 interview, Gabdullatif Myrzakulov, the president of National Company Kazakhstan Garysh Sapar (part of Kazcosmos), justified such programs, stating “if we want to develop space industry, we need to establish design engineering centers and build a manufacturing and technological base (Interfax.kz, March 2012). The 2011-2015 strategic plan for Kazcosmos called for establishing a comprehensive terrestrial infrastructure, such as engineering production and additional satellite launch facilities, and robust acquisition and development of space technologies (Office of the Prime Minister, www.pm.kz/page/article_item-101).

Kazakhstan is also more consistently applying its famed “multi-vector” foreign-policy approach to the outer space domain. In 2010, Kazcosmos signed an agreement with the French firm EADS Astrium that includes technology transfers, the creation of assembly and development centers in Astana, and the training of 100 Kazakh designers, engineers and developers over a three-year period (EADS Press release, October 27, 2010). Beyond the development of a technological infrastructure, the agreement provides for the replacement of several malfunctioning Russian telecommunication satellites as well as adding new earth remote sensing satellites. Kazakhstan wants to use these satellites and other resources to establish itself as the communications hub of Eurasia.

THE STORY OF Astana is usually told as grandiose spectacle – of modern government buildings, shopping malls, and entertainment centers designed by pop-star architects and erected in record time. One of the final great landmark buildings, the fantastical glass-enclosed, tropical garden and beach, the Khan Shatyry designed by Norman Foster, is on course for completion this year. However, if we take our eyes off the spectacular architecture and construction sites and look at the empty-looking spaces between, we can see no-less-grandiose happenings on the sidewalks, parks and squares, and on the outskirts of the city. It is the work of making Astana a green city with potentially more than half its territory covered by parks, planted boulevards, and horticultural displays.

Considering that Astana is in an extremely harsh, arid steppe climate with a short vegetation period where not many trees and plants grow naturally, turning Astana into a garden city requires significant government investment and, more importantly, a long-term commitment of design, labor, and care. “Our plan is to cover the city with trees and plantings,” says Yerlan Kozhagapanov, deputy mayor of Astana. “A green center will provide cooling conditions in summer and insulating conditions in winter.”

Along Astana’s new ring road towards the northwest are rows of birches, poplars, and maple trees standing two to three meters high. This is an already visible result of Astana’s “green belt” project scheduled through 2015. Longer term, in 20 to 30 years, the plan is for the city to be enveloped in an artificially created forest joining the natural pine and birch forest of Borovoe further north. A continuous, 300 meter-wide green corridor is to stretch along the Esil river and connect it with the “green belt” forest to the southwest. “It takes two or three years to construct a building, but it takes decades to develop new parks and gardens,” says Yann Mingard, a Swiss landscape architect and photographer impressed by the scale of the work. “It is a more challenging task which really needs visionary and thorough planning.”

Allocating a river as a center of a recreational green zone has a history in Soviet-era planning. In 1961, the Soviet Master Plan of Astana’s urban predecessor, Tselinograd, which was authored by a group of Leningrad architects, designated the area around the river as a recreation zone (zona otdyha) – an open public place and natural park on what was the edge of the city. In the 2001 new Master Plan by the famous Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, Astana was re-conceptualized as a “river-city.” The river Esil was designated to be a “center of life.” As the late Kurokawa said in a 2003 interview: “The Esil will unite nature and civilization, creating a symbiosis between the city and landscape.” City planners today understand that the river should also be protected from pollution and large-scale development.

Ten parks built around the river by the municipal greening company, Astana-Zelenstroi, mean to do just this. In 1997, before the relocation of the capital, green areas within the city measured 68 hectares. Today, green space in the city (not counting the “green belt”) has increased almost tenfold to 660 hectares, with eight square meters per resident.

The trees planted in Astana’s parks and “green belt” come from the Astana-Zelenstroi tree nursery in the village of Hersonovka, 40km south of Astana. “It takes nine years to grow a birch tree and 11 years to grow a poplar tree in the nursery before it can be re-planted in the city parks,” says the head of the nursery, Gennadii Li. Today, 700,000 young trees grow there. If intensive grooming is required for trees that grow in this climate, imagine how much work and care is needed to water and protect the exotic trees that don’t grow in the conditions of southern Siberia, but nevertheless are being planted in Astana, such as mahogany and Manchurian nut trees. The Astana-Zelenstroi has 1,100 employees to water grass along the sidewalks and in parks and squares, prune city trees, and protect them against disease and insects.

The work of greening starts at freezing temperatures in winter with the planting of “sleeping” fur trees and continues throughout the year. Tree planting requires significant preparatory work: draining ground water if it is too close to the surface; fertilizing soil; and in some places changing the native soil altogether. The soil of Astana is known to be difficult and in many places barren. “There is a saying in Kazakh about the soil of Astana: “ustinde – muz, astynda – tuz” (“ice on the surface and salt under the surface”) says the deputy director of the Astana-Zelenstroi, Eric Tokmurzin. “This is an exact description of the problems that we face, but we nevertheless have to make it workable.”

Astana’s commitment to greening despite the harsh climate is comparable to other global green cities. By comparison, Toronto plants up to 20,000 young trees a year. In Astana, the years 2006 and 2007 each saw more than 38,000 trees planted. Although in 2008-2009 the amount dropped to 20,000 annually, Astana-Zelenstroi plans to pick up the pace. “Fundamentally, we want to improve the quality of life in Astana,” says the head of the Astana-Zelenstroi, Zharkyn Zhumagulov. “The trees and shrubs that we plant soften the wind blowing from the southwest, stop the snow, and prevent erosion. They provide a place of refuge from the glass and steel and concrete, from the stresses of the urban environment.” ?

Alima Bissenova, a native of Astana, is working on a Ph.D. dealing with urban development and housing at Cornell University.

When you think of Kazakhstan you probably think of nomads living in tents, but today’s Kazakhstan is rapidly modernizing thanks to an oil boom, so it’s appropriate that the Central Asian nation is now home to the world’s tallest tent.

Technically, it’s the world’s largest “tensile structure”, meaning something held up by poles and cables. A tent, in other words. At 150 meters (492 feet), it’s the also the tallest building in the capital Astana. It encloses more than 100,000 square meters, including a park, cafes, restaurants, 700 parking spots, shopping areas, even an artificial beach.

Called the Khan Shatyr, it’s a unique architectural wonder. One of the challenges of building it was Astana’s rough weather. The Khan Shatyr’s website proclaims, “What do you feel like doing everyday at Astana? It is -30C outside.”

Not the best slogan, but certainly realistic. Astana has the distinction of being the second coldest capital in the world (after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), with freezing temperatures six months of the year and winter temperatures that have been measured as low as ?40 °C (?40 °F). In the summer it can get up to 35 °C (95 °F). The tent’s skin is made from a special plastic that allows sunlight in while still acting as an insulator. Air vents keep ice from forming on the surfaces and keep the interior at a constant temperature.

Kazakhstan has large oil reserves and the government has been riding a wave of petrodollars that it has used to fund a massive building campaign in the capital. Astana is said to be the biggest construction project in the world, and taking a look at the huge structures in the gallery photos it certainly is a strong contender. The city is the brainchild of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The Khan Shatyr was opened on President Nazarbayev’s 70th birthday.

The government has been trying to sell Kazakhstan’s capital as a tourist destination, and marvels like this will go a long way towards compensating visitors for the weather. With rugged scenery, Baikonur Cosmodrome (where Yuri Gagarin launched into orbit to become the first man in space), ancient mosques, medieval walled cities, and traditional folk who live in much smaller tents, Kazakhstan is a good choice for the adventure traveler.

SOURCE: Kazakhstan News Bulletin No 19, Released by the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States of America

Capital building in Kazakhstan
(bne) – Astana seems an empty place in winter when the Siberian cold drives the population inside. But in June the Kazakh capital’s streets are a hive of activity as gangs of workmen frantically resurface roads and prepare new buildings for the dual birthday celebrations for Astana and President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

We invite you to participate in the First International Investment Forum “Astana Invest 2010”, which will be held on June 7, 2010 in Astana.

Astana Invest 2010 Forum is organised by Akimat of Astana city and with the active support and direct participation of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Astana Invest 2010 Forum is aimed at improving the investment climate and further stimulates the flow of domestic and foreign investment in the city’s economy, the formation and promotion of Brand Astana to the world markets in the strategy of joining the Republic of Kazakhstan in the top 50 most competitive countries in the world.

For participation at the Astana Invest 2010 Forum we invited to attend representatives of central and local executive bodies, national companies, development institutions, foreign companies, financial institutions, large and medium business capital.

Potential investors will be offered a unique opportunity to discuss specific investment projects and to obtain the latest information on investment projects in the Astana city.

There will also be presentations of projects using public-private partnerships, various projects for industrial, construction and infrastructure areas of the Astana.

I look forward to seeing you at the Astana Invest 2010 Forum – the event of the year for networking, in-depth analysis and up-to-the-minute information.

The III Astana Economic Forum will be held in July 1-2, 2010 in Astana city and dedicated to the issues of ensuring sustainable economic growth in the post-crisis period.

The third economic forum will bring together over 2000 representatives from political and business area from more than 50 countries of the world this year, and also the leading scientists, representatives of the public and mass media to discuss the key subjects of the global economy development.

The two-day event program is dedicated to the issues of innovation, business, industry, international trade, export and import, customs union, energy, ecology, international financial and currency systems, Islamic financing and youth development. Within the frames of the Forum the exhibition of scientific works and innovative projects, competitions for the best research works and two events with the participation of the international organizations concerning the issues of the role of information and communication technologies and development of “green” economy will take place.

About

Kazakhstan Chamber of Commerce in USA is located in New York. KazCham is an independent chamber associated with state agencies and businesses in Kazakhstan with the aim to provide members with current information on the political and investment climate, assist them in establishing government and business contacts, conduct searches of buyers and partners, organize forums and seminars, PR campaigns. Contact us at info@kazcham.com or follow on twitter.com @kazcham.